By Sima Bahous The following are excerpts from the speech delivered by Ms. Sima Bahous, UN Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director, to the UN Security Council meeting on Afghanistan on 18 September 2024 at UN Headquarters. NEW YORK | 19 September 2024 (IDN) — We have heard and will continue to hear today about […]
Gulf States: Huge Economic Cost of Keeping 13 million Women Out of Workforce
By Amr Saber Algarhi and Konstantinos Lagos* This article was published on The Coversation under Creative Commons licence. SHEFFIELD, South Yorkshire, England | 18 September 2024 (IDN) — When you think of modern, oil-rich Gulf states like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), you may picture a life of luxury. But beneath […]
UN Report Urges Immediate Global Action to Close Critical Gender Gaps
By Ramesh Jaura Investing in women and girls and ending discrimination are key to fulfilling the promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. BERLIN | 16 September 2024 (IDN) — Less than a week ahead of the Summit of the Future taking place on September 22-23 at the UN headquarters in New York, a […]
On Its 25th Anniversary, The Culture of Peace Focuses on Women, Children and Communities
By Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury* NEW YORK | 13 September 2024 (IDN) —The global community is celebrating today the adoption by the United Nations of the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace, which is considered a monumental document that transcends boundaries, cultures, societies, and nations. That inspirational action took place 25 […]
Equality Now Hails the Gambia for Protecting Rights of Women
By Kizito Makoye DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania | 19 July 2024 (IDN) — Absa Samba, a prominent Gambian activist, exhaled a sigh of relief when the Gambian lawmakers overwhelmingly rejected a controversial bill that would have lifted a ban on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), a barbaric practice that had inflicted indelible psychological scars on her […]
Women and Girls in Haiti Deprived of Basic Safety and Health Services
By Caroline Mwanga NEW YORK | PORT AU PRINCE | 18 July 2024 (IDN) — Ongoing political instability, escalating gang violence, and hurricane season are threatening the Caribbean Island, Haiti. Subsequently, as a recent UN Women report finds, nearly 300,000 internally displaced women and girls are living in makeshift camps lacking basic human necessities. They […]
The Gambia Decides to Uphold Ban on FGM — UN Agencies Commend
By Caroline Mwanga NEW YORK | 15 July 2024 (IDN) — The vote by the National Assembly of The Gambia to uphold the ban on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), reaffirming its commitments to human rights, gender equality, and protecting the health and well-being of girls and women, has been commended by UN agencies. FGM involves […]
113 Countries Have Never Had a Woman Head of State
NEW YORK | 25 June 2024 (IDN) — Despite progress, women are still largely excluded from positions of power and diplomacy, with the highest levels of influence and decision-making still predominantly occupied by men. According to UN Women’s global data on Women Political Leaders 2024, worldwide, women’s under-representation in decision-making remains as a stark reality. […]
African Women Battling Legal Bias in Families
By Kizito Makoye DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania | 16 May 2024 (IDN) —Thandi* was barely 14 when she was forced into marriage—crushing her dreams to become a nurse. Her cash-strapped granny who lives in Malawi’s impoverished Nano district, married her off at a meagre pride of 15,000 Malawian Kwacha, barely $8. The money, intended to […]
Gaza War: More Death and Despair for Rafah’s 700,000 Women and Girls
By UN Women NEW YORK | 7 May 2024 (IDN) — With the population of the southern city of Rafah, in Gaza, ballooning fivefold, from 250,000 to 1.4 million people, in just seven months of the war, the physical and mental health conditions for women and girls have been deteriorating rapidly, as new data collected […]